While it’s difficult to pick the best one, Knox concerts have featured folk singers, jazz and blues bands, hard and classic rockers, and even orchestras. Knox students, staff, and faculty have had many opportunities to hear some great concert performers on campus. Some performers have even inspired current and former students to make their own music. We asked Knox alumni and staff to share their favorite musical memories from their time on campus, and the answers might surprise you!

The ’60s and ’70s

“There were several terrific folk, blues, and almost bluegrass concerts in the mid- to late-’60s while I was at Knox,” Tad Gilster ’67 wrote. “By far my favorites were two Doc Watson concerts. The Doc’s visit to Galesburg started a decades’ long relationship and introduced me to flat-picking guitar and a lifelong love of bluegrass music.”

Ira Weiner ’68 saw many great musicians during his time at Knox: “Some standouts were Paul Butterfield Blues, the Turtles, and Muddy Waters.”

On Friday, October 24, 1975, Steve Goodman, a nationally known singer-songwriter performed at the first of two Homecoming concerts. Rory Gallagher and his band played the next day.

Carol Snyder ’77 and James Munro ’77 thought the Goodman show was the best that they saw at Knox. Munro remembers that Goodman broke a guitar string during the encore and left the stage, believing the show was over. However, the crowd remained. “Goodman borrowed a guitar from Jamie Swiese (who was the warm-up), played another song or two, broke another string, walked off stage, the house lights came up, and NO ONE LEFT. Finally, he came out and said he was out of guitars. He told us he was going to sing one song a cappella. GREAT show!”

John Luthy ’78 remembers meeting Goodman after the show.

“After the concert, we returned to our dorm, Neal 1, and put on Arlo Guthrie's ‘Hobo’s Lullaby’ album to play his version of Goodman’s ‘City of New Orleans,’” Luthy wrote in an email. “As we listened, Goodman walks in, says, ‘Hey, that's Arlo!’ while we all sat dumbfounded! He walked out and went up to Neal 3 to attend a party there!”

Bob Fischer ’71 and Dan McDougall-Treacy ’71 voted the Chicago-based Siegel-Schwall Blues Band concerts in 1969 and 1970 as some of the most memorable they attended.

McDougall-Treacy also remembered Alice Cooper performing at the 1970 Homecoming. Notably, there was a power failure during the light show, and Cooper wanted to be paid in cash, not by check. Homecoming attracted big-name shows: Chubby Checker performed in 1972. “And he really could go low on the limbo,” Mike Panther ’73 recalled.

Other events brought big names to campus. The 1978 celebration of Carl Sandburg’s 100th birthday brought folksinger Pete Seeger to campus.

The ’80s and On

“In 1983, The Band's Rick Danko and Levon Helm performed acoustically in Harbach Theater,” Jeff Clark ’82 emailed. “The Band had broken up a year earlier (or at least Robbie Robertson was no longer playing with them), and these two sat on stools with their guitars and absolutely captivated a packed house with the rotating stage in thrust position. That might be the best concert I have ever seen PERIOD.”

Adam Bruns ’86 also wrote that the Danko and Helm show was one of the best. However, he also recalls John Cage giving a reading in Kresge, which he said “felt like a reading and a concert.”

Students from the 2000s also recalled some entertaining shows.

“Mates of State played in the Gizmo in early 2003,” according to John Gripshover ’06. “I lived in Seymour at the time and walked downstairs to a band I’d never heard before that absolutely rocked my mind. The on-stage chemistry between them was incredible, flirtatious, and fun. There have been some excellent shows at Knox over the years!”

Tighe Burke ’09 liked Girltalk in 2009. “They put on a KILLER show. It was unlike any show I'd seen before ... and then he played at another party at the Beta House. So fun! What an experience that I will never forget. He had just gotten popular and for him to come to a small school was such a treat.”

Linda Rice, a custodian at Knox, believes the best show she saw was by Bruce Polay, professor emeritus of music, who conducted the Galesburg Symphony Orchestra for a Concert on the Lawn. “They had a very old typewriter and, while the orchestra played, he played the typewriter keys to the music. So cool!”